Monday, 19 May 2014

It was my 40th birthday last month, and my good mates whom I've known since I was teenager at the local CWC wargaming club banded together and got me a Russian Brigade Deal from Perry. Six boxes each of 40 Russians! Wow, now I have so many Napoleonics to paint! You bastards! ;)

I bought the Austrian Brigade Deal a while back and you save about 20% on the cost to buy the sets individually at the new prices (looks like they haven't taken new prices into account yet), so recommended if you want lots of figures. And if you don't want lots of figures, and stupidly grandiose amounts of figures for that matter, then why are you bothering with 28mm Napoleonics and "The Beautiful Game" in the first place?! ;)

As well as the six boxes of plastic infantry, it comes with three mounted officers, and two 6 pounder guns - one loading and one firing. All great models. My only slight hesitation in saying this would be with the officer on rearing horse waving sabre around in the air, sculpted to realistic proportions. Awesome figure, but this is a pose I always try and avoid with metals if it is done realistically as opposed to having some extra bulk for wargaming toughness, as it is pretty delicate. His plume is also rather delicate. Possible solutions include a pinned plume (probably one that is a bit thicker from a plastic kit perhaps), and replacing the thin metal sabre with a plastic one or sculpted pipe or orders or something... or just being careful when using him. I wonder if any readers have any good ideas for this problem? Does any company make 28mm steel wargaming swords? I generally prefer swords shouldered or held down like on my Chasseurs, though I have a French General waving his sword around... so perhaps a Russian one is ok too.

Once again the Perry's plastic sets include these painting guides and flag sheets. Very useful, and with a bit of care and matt varnish I think those flags might actually be usable.

Then there are the sprues, six infantry sprues each with six models, and a command sprue of four models, plus the plastic bases. I will be basing them on 50mm square MDF wooden bases as usual.

You have to choose which heads to stick on, which is an understandable design choice, though it does add to construction time a little compared to the French Infantry. Each sprue has head options for 1809 Kiwer (shako), 1812 Kiwer, or fatigue cap, and the infantry sprue also comes with two 1809 and two 1812 Grenadier Kiwers. Backpacks come with swords and ammo pouches attached.

So more top notch figures from Perry, and these plastics really just beg to be put together and painted up. I'll add a few more guns and some cavalry, after I've finished off the French and started on my Austrians...

Saturday, 17 May 2014

A while since the last update, as I've been busy with work as well as with wargaming. However last month I attended Natcon 2014, the annual New Zealand Wargaming convention, on 18-20 April. When I first started going to Natcon in the 1990's, it was the one big wargaming convention in New Zealand, but now there are many so it isn't quite the big deal it used to be. Nonetheless the range of games played is still often higher than at other conventions so it's nice to see the variety. I took a bunch of photos, so here's some of them, starting with the display games, and some 28mm Napoleonics from the massive collection of Chris Packer. Russians vs some French with Bavarian and other German allies I think the game was, using General de Brigade rules.

Chris Pooch and his mates put on a display game of their 28mm Moderns skirmish rules.

Another moderns display, in 6mm scale this time.

Another display game was this detailed "Fallout" 28mm skirmish, based upon the computer game with homegrown rules.

There was also a American Civil War 28mm game, using the new "Longstreet" rules, but unfortunately I didn't get a photo of that. And some other things including Malifaux.

The competition games were spread over two halls. This was the hall that contained the historical games, including 15mm Renaissance using DBR rules (which I was playing in), 15mm Ancients using FOG, 15mm Napoleonics using FOG, WW2 using Flames of War (FOW) with two periods (early and mid war I think), and also a Warmachine competition and the display games.

The other hall contained the fantasy gaming, including Warhammer Fantasy, Warhammer 40k, Dystopian Wars, X-Wing (I think), and possibly some other things... I snapped a photo during the lunch break so it's pretty empty. The bar joined between the two halls and can be seen in the top left area.

I took some photos of many of the competitions so here they are:

15mm Renaissance

This was the competition I was playing in, using my Hindu Indians. I will do another post about my Indians once I've finished the army, still some cavalry to finish painting! I used lots of rocketeers and elephants which was bit of a crazy combination. Here's my Indians fighting Keith's Sumatrans who were also keen on elephants.

And earlier in the game, before my rockets had his infantry fleeing all over the show.

Keith's Sumatrans.

My Indians taking on some Scots.

The winning army, Spanish.

15mm Napoleonics

There were 8 players in this competition, and no French! As has been pointed out though, most of the armies were technically French allies at one time or another...

One of the armies was Ottoman (I think it came last...).

15mm WW2

For some reason I took a heck of a lot of pictures of the WW2 tables and armies... so here they are. These guys put some great work into their scenery, so maybe that had something to do with my photo snapping.

And some pictures of a few armies.

A New Zealand force.

And another picture showing some great modelling work on the infantry in particular.

Russell Briant won the competition, with the aid of battleship artillery barrages I believe!

Dystopian Wars

I didn't get many photos from the fantasy hall, but here's a few. I was quite taken by the Dystopian War competition. This is a "steampunk" naval game set in an alternative 19th century setting.

40K

Just a couple of pics, I liked this Iron Warriors army...

...and also this Tyranid army - because it used to be mine! I sold it several years ago to Higgins from Dunedin, who has been adding bits to it in the same style. I note the Tyranid Warriors in the upper centre have sprouted wings too. Great to see it being used, as it had just sat in the cupboard for years when I had it.

This Harridan (big flying gribbly), is his latest edition. Great work, looks like he'd be a morale boost to the little fellas!

So there we are. In other news I've been finishing off my 15mm Hindu Indian collection, and I acquired a big batch of Napoleonic Russians from Perry (more Napoleonics to paint!). More about them in future posts shortly.

About Me

Hi I'm Mark from New Zealand. I started Wargaming in the 1980's with the late and great Donald Featherstone's book "Wargames" and Esci and Airfix plastic Napoleonic figures. As a teenager I borrowed Don's book from the public library repeatedly, eventually finding others with the same interest. I've been hooked ever since, with Wargames Research Group's DBX series, and Games Workshop's Specialist Games also featuring prominently.